Outstanding people of the usa

George Washington (1732-1799)

George Washington was born in 1732 in a very rich family in what is now the State of Virginia. He received the major portion of his schooling under his father and his elder half-brother

During the French and Indian wars (1755) Washington was colonel and commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces and defended the colony’s frontier. During the War of Independence (1755-1783), George Washington was elected to command the American forces formed by the New England colonies to oppose the British troops concentrated at Boston. He led the army in many battles in which he suffered defeats and won victories. It was a long and cruel war, ended with the victory of the American forces

George Washington was elected the first President of the USA. He always served the American nationhood, so he was called “The Father of the Nation”. In 1797 he retired to Mount Vernon, where he died in 1799. Washington’s monument stands at the national capital which bears his name.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Thomas Jefferson, one of the American presidents of the past, was born in Virginia in 1743. When he was fourteen years old, his father died and the young boy was left to choose for himself what to do.

Jefferson studied literature and languages. He also studied to be a lawyer, and later he wrote many of the Virginian laws. One of the laws for which he worked very much was a law to allow every child to go to school free. When Jefferson was still a young man, he was one of those who wanted freedom from England. His most outstanding achievement was as chief author of the Declaration of Independence, a statement of human rights and liberties. It was read to the happy people on the 4th of July, 1776

Jefferson also drew up the constitution for his state, Virginia, and served as its governor. He was sent to France as the foreign minister of the USA, and afterwards was President Washington’s Secretary of State. A few years later he became the country’s third president, serving in this position for two terms.

The author of the Declaration of Independence did another important thing for the American people He worked out a plan for a university where the students and teachers could live and work together in a village built for them. It was one of the first schools to teach science. Today it is the University of Virginia.

Thomas Jefferson did many useful things during his lifetime, and he always thought about helping ordinary people.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1965)

On the 12th of February, 1809, a little boy was born in the backwoods of America, in the state of Kentucky. His name was Abraham Lincoln and he lived with his parents and his sister in a log hut.

Life was not very easy for the Lincoln family. They moved several times and lived as pioneers in wild new country in Indiana and Illinois. In 1818 Lincoln’s mother died. Abraham had little chance to go to school. With the help of his stepmother, he taught himself how to read and write. In all his life Abraham never went to school for more than a year. But he read a lot. Young Lincoln performed a variety of odd jobs.

In the war against the Indians he served as a captain of the militia. Later he became a lawyer and began taking an interest in politics. Lincoln was elected to the Illinois legislature and in 1846 to the US Congress. In 1860 he was elected President of the USA.

His ideas about freedom for the black slaves were supported by the industrial North, The slaves owners of the South were against them. So a war between the North and the South began. It was won by the North. Lincoln made the famous Gettysburg Address (“government of the people, by the people, for the people”) and in 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, giving political freedom to three million blacks of the South.

In 1864 Abraham Loncoln was elected President again. But his enemies could not let him continue his good work. A year later he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a popular young actor, during a theatre performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Abraham Lincoln is well-known and loved by Americans for his honesty, intelligence and humanity.